They’re to be found all over my house and
surprise, surprise—some are even in the garden.

What I don’t have is a live
owl.

There’s generally some catalyst that begins a collection and
in my case the habit was formed during my teaching years at KintorePrimary School,
the owl being a school symbol to be found in many of the public areas of the
school, in different forms.

In my own classroom, I used my personal collection
of owls as a weekly symbol of excellence. The current ideology was for mixed
ability table groupings in the classroom and the table which had the best
performance (i.e. via a points system) —based on effort, group co-operation and
participation in activities, and general behaviour— ‘won’ the award for the
week. This meant their table gave home to whichever of my owls was used that
month. When I look back, I’m amazed that my lava owl survived seen in the top shelf above, the large black one at second left!

Burgh Coat of Arms 1959

The village of Kintore, where I live, has evidence of having
had some form of school operating since 1574; though education for the local
people was possibly even earlier since the official status of Royal Burgh was
granted in 1506 (this was, in fact, a reaffirmation of an earlier status) and
money for a school was gifted at this time by the Burgess of Kintore.

For centuries after 1574, Kintore remained a Royal Burgh
giving it prestige not granted to many other villages. However, it wasn’t till
1959 that Kintore was granted an Official Coat of Arms, any previous insignia
used for a long time had never been recognised by the Lord Lyon, King of Arms
in Edinburgh! The tree of knowledge became central to the design, the other aspects reflecting historical traditions in Kintore.

As a special event in 1959, the school was also given its own
official set of ‘arms’ which could be used as a school badge.

The tree of knowledge symbol was used in conjunction with the open books to reflect excellence in learning...at a school in Kintore.

cloth blazer badge of 1959

In 1959, this official charter cost the Provost of Kintore a whopping £50!

I’m not exactly sure, since I’ve
not done the research, but I don’t believe many other schools in Scotland would
have had this status!

(Apologies for the image quality. My original photos are stored on floppy discs & can no longer be accessed via this computer. )

1960s Kintore School blazer

By the late 1980s, the
wearing of a school blazer had gone out of fashion and a new version of the
school symbol was decorating the new school sweatshirts.

The tree of knowledge and the open books became central as a shield inserted into a symbolic owl image. From then on the school image was in black and white and stamped onto school products.

The owl had
arrived at KintoreSchool!

Kintore School owl symbol

Why an owl?

The owl is also a long recognised symbol of
knowledge and has had its own place in the myths and legends across the globe.

It also has, regrettably, an equal reputation of being a ‘dark’ symbol.

In Scotland it was said to be ‘bad
luck’ to see an owl in daylight.

I’ve even read on the internet that in the US
there’s a lovely saying that“You must return the call if you hear an owl cry,
or if you can’t do that you need to remove an item of your clothing and put it
on again inside-out.”

Owls are revered in some cultures as being birds of
power; feared in others for a similar reason of emitting negative power. Varying
versions of superstitions are around regarding owls—you’ve maybe heard of some
yourself?

Owls (Cailleach, Oidhche, Comachag) were most often
associated with the Crone aspect of the Celtic Goddess but were also seen as a guide
to and through the Afterworld—the state inhabited after a person died and
before a soul re-incarnation phase. The owl was lauded as a creature of keen
sight in darkness, a silent and swift hunter. An owl was also thought to help unmask
those who would deceive you or take advantage of you.

In my Ancient Roman studies, I’ve learned that the hoot of
an owl presaged death- as with Julius Caesar "...yesterday, the bird of
night did sit Even at noonday, upon the market place, Hooting and shrieking"
(from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar). During the period I focus on in my
novels—84 AD to 211 AD—if a traveller dreamt of an owl, it would mean they’d be
shipwrecked or robbed. The ancient Romans believed that witches transformed
into owls and sucked the blood of babies. Nailing an owl to a door warded off evil
and lightning: a superstition which persisted in the UK into the 1800s. Owl eggs and
cooked owl has been used for medicinal purposes for millennia.

In England, owl
egg was used to treat alcoholism. Some mothers gave their children raw owl eggs
believing it would give a lifetime of immunity to drunkenness. Cooked till only
ashes were left, owl eggs were used in a potion to improve eyesight. The one I
like best of all is that children suffering from Whooping-cough were given owl
broth.

Much of owl superstition is negative, i.e. bad things are
going to happen, so I was delighted to also find that in northern England seeing
an owl is considered Good Luck! That’s just as well since I see them every day
in my collection.

One thing I often wish is that I could be a true night owl
regarding my writing. I’ve sometimes felt that my best writing has been penned
late at night but my problem is that I’m not also a lark. I can’t cope by day
if the night has lingered into the wee owl hours!

Friday, 29 January 2016

Jennifer is a fellow Crooked Cat Author who is one of the specially featured paranormal authors on the Crooked Cat Books Facebook page for this coming week 29th Jan -5th February. As well as the two excellent paranormal books featured (I've read both)- Jennifer's Kindred Spirits: Tower of London and Shani Struthers The Haunting of Highdown Hall - there's also the charity anthology collection FEAR written by various Crooked cat authors.

Jen's here to tell us a bit about her passion for the Tower of London and the historical mysteries within it which in turn led to her writing Kindred Spirits - a novel I very much enjoyed and reviewed it on this blog some months ago. (You can scroll down the archives to find it, if you'd like to)

Welcome, Jennifer! I have an inkling you're just a wee bit fascinated by The Tower of London. Please tell us about it...

Despite taking until I was almost thirty to get around to
visiting, I can comfortably say that the Tower of London
is probably now one of my favourite historical buildings.

I’ve always loved imagining the lives which went on in such
places, and with the Tower, what a choice! Yes, I’ve taken a couple of
liberties, but as far as I see it, if a ghost is haunting one place, then I
don’t see why it shouldn’t move about a bit. So Richard III is to be found at
the Tower, along with his brother, despite both being buried elsewhere (now
famously so, in Richard’s case).

Although I love the peace of St John’s
Chapel within the WhiteTower, my favourite rooms in the Tower complex are
the suite of refurnished chambers in the MedievalPalace.
Decorated in the style of the late middle ages, you get a sense of how bright
and inviting the rooms would have been, and how the wealthy nobles and
courtiers would have lived within the Tower walls.

That was where it was easiest to hear the whispers of the
Tower’s ghosts, even those from different eras, who would never have seen the
rooms in that style the first time around. And the idea of those who did know
them, reliving their memories, was also so tempting – I couldn’t resist.

As part of Crooked Cat Publishing’s paranormal-themed week,
Kindred Spirits: Tower
of London is reduced to
just 99p/c. I hope you enjoy meeting the ghosts as much as I did.

Kindred Spirits: Tower
of London:

A King, three Queens, a
handful of nobles and a host of former courtiers…In the Tower of London,
the dead outnumber the living, with the likes of Tudor Queens Anne Boleyn and
Katherine Howard rubbing shoulders with one man who has made his way back from his
place of death at Bosworth Field to discover
the truth about the disappearance of his famous nephews.Amidst the chaos of daily life, with political and personal tensions running
high, Richard III takes control, as each ghostly resident looks for their own
peace in the former palace – where privacy was always a limited luxury.With so many characters haunting the Tower
of London, will they all
find the calm they crave? But foremost – will the young Plantagenet Princes
join them?

About Jennifer:

Jennifer is a marine biologist by training, who developed an
equal passion for history whilst stalking Mary, Queen of Scots of childhood
holidays (she has since moved on to Richard III). She completed her BSc and MSc
at the University
of Hull, and has worked as
a marine environmental consultant since graduating.

Enrolling on an adult education workshop on her return to
the north-east reignited Jennifer’s pastime of creative writing, and she has
been filling notebooks ever since. In 2014, Jennifer won the Story Tyne short
story competition, and also continues to work on developing her poetic voice,
reading at a number of events, and with several pieces available online. Her
debut novel Kindred Spirits: Tower
of London was published
by Crooked Cat Publishing in October 2015.

Wednesday, 27 January 2016

There is only one more day left of The Beltane Choice being one of the three featured Historical novels at Crooked Cat Books page on Facebook.

Here's another insight about aspects of the novel...

Flee or be subsumed…

“…Nancy Jardine has done an outstanding job
seamlessly weaving their story into the history of that time. She captures the
fear of having one's home overtaken by foreigners, and the heat of falling into
a love forbidden by all. Her use of language is exquisite and her writing style
a joy to read…” The partial review quote homes in on one of the very
important themes I’ve tackled in The
Beltane Choice.

A strong theme in my Celtic
Fervour Series is that of the displacement which happens during war
situations. In effect, it was also a refugee crisis situation in my Celtic Fervour Series during the years
AD 71- 84.

The historical
background

When the usurpers thrust their way into new territory, as
the Ancient Roman Army did in the north of Britannia in approximately AD 71 (possibly
earlier *see below), many innocent people were caught up in the conflict. I
don’t need to write here of the mirroring of similar current situations across
the globe—they’re still happening right now where there’s a wresting of land
from people under extreme duress.

In the late first century AD, the Roman Emperors Nero, Vespasian
and Domitian were on a big expansion spree across the known world to add
territory to their growing Empire. Britannia was a key player in the sense that
those Emperors wanted the land to exploit any riches within and also gain
political kudos in Rome
for being successful with military strategy on the frontier. Southern
Britain was in some ways happier than the north to become
Romanised because a number of southern tribes already had successful trade
links established and wealth accumulated from the practice. However, by AD 69, no
longer satisfied with only maintaining control of the south, the Roman legions marched
northwards into Brigantia, a large swathe of land (modern day Yorkshire, Cumbria,
Northumberland) held by the Brigante Tribal Federation.

During the years between the Claudian invasion of AD 43 and
AD 69, Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes, and initially also her husband King
Venutius, had largely kept Brigantia free of Roman presence by making arrangements
with Rome. In becoming a ‘client queen’ it seems that some sort of understanding
meant the Roman Army largely steered clear of her territory, but also kept the
Brigantes from being attacked by other hostile tribes to the south. This
arrangement seemed to last fairly well for some time during the reign of
Emperor Nero but things changed when Nero pulled out one of the four legions in
AD 67, which had been stationed in Britannia. Legio XIV Gemina Martia Victrixleft, perhaps the intention for them
was to strengthen the troops in the Caucasus
regions, but it seems they never got there.

Wikimedia Commons

Unfortunately if Britannia had seemed stable to Nero, it
clearly wasn’t so. The Governor of the time, AD 67, Trebellius Maximus, had to
focus plenty of his more limited resources in quelling rebellions in present
day Wales.
However, it’s possible from some evidence finds further north that there may also
have been a need for the Romans to establish their physical presence in the north west of Britannia
in the lands of the Carvetti and the Cornovii to the west and the south west of
the Brigante Federation. Carbon dating not being exactly precise, the earliest
some of the small fortlets found in the north may have been established is
during the tenure of Trebillius Maximus, though more likely in the time of his
successor Bolanus.

During the first forays of Roman infiltration in Brigantia,
small skirmishes were recorded and according to Tacitus, the Roman historian
who gave us most of our knowledge of the era, there were also some larger face-to-face
battles. The Brigantes didn’t give up their land easily but ultimately they
were unable to force the Romans to retreat.

From approximately AD 71 (*probably even earlier if some
carbon dating of wooden remains from northern Cumbrian fortlets is accurate) the
Roman presence made itself more permanent in the building of numerous guard
towers, fortlets, forts and eventually fortresses- as at Eboracum (York) and
Deva (Chester).

The Beltane Choice

At the beginning of Book 1 of the series—The Beltane Choice—full scale war between
the Brigantes of the north and the Roman Empire
is looming. My aim in this part of the novel is to indicate that although the
Celtic warriors were fierce fighters they were no match for the Roman army
machine. I feel that there had to be some of the Brigantes of AD 71 who
realised that each separate tribe—even a huge one like the Brigante
Federation—could not defeat the progress of the Roman expansion. As such, I
have my Brigante negotiator Lorcan moot the idea that the tribes even further
north of Brigantia need to join forces since the Roman footsteps will soon be
on their soil, too. The Selgovae were
the tribe situated just over the Cheviot Hills in what is modern day central
southern Scotland.

I’ve read enough to have an idea that the tribe to the east
of the Selgovae, the Votadini, probably wouldn’t have been interested because
there’s a reasonable assumption that the Votadini had probably already been in
some sort of negotiation with Rome
in exchange for leaving their territory free of legionary domination. There is
sufficient lack of Roman forts/ fortlets in this area to the east which indicates
that the heavy Roman presence wasn’t necessary—i.e. resistance was less likely.
The Votadini flatlands were agriculturally likely to be productive and, as
such, very important to Rome
via some sort of trade deal.

By the end of the book full scale war has directly affected
my Brigante characters. Initially my warriors defend their way of life by
riding off from their home hillfort of Garrigill to go to war at Whorl, a
battle site near the stronghold of the Brigante King Venutius. Devastatingly, the
battle at Whorl is a crushing defeat. Many Celtic warriors are killed. Others
hirple their way home, as my maimed Garrigill warriors do, but the fact is that
the mighty Roman armies are too strong, too well drilled and too well armoured
for the brave but less battle trained Celtic warriors to overpower.

At the end of The
Beltane Choice, the take over of land has already happened in Brigantia.
The Roman legions under the governorship and command of General Petilius
Cerialis have flooded the northern reaches of Brigantia making it untenable for
my warriors to remain at their home. They flee northwards to Tarras, the
Selgovae hillfort of Nara’s birth, north of what
we now name the Cheviot Hills (to Dumfriesshire).
Their safety at Tarras doesn’t last all that long though because some seven
years later the Roman legions are also on the march across Selgovae territory.

Pixaby

All through this trauma that's affecting my characters life, of sorts, goes on. Love still plays a part and some relationships strengthen, though some decline. Though the background of the novel is of war essentially the story is about developing relationships and love blossoming regardless. There's also a theme of inevitability!

The next 2 books of the Celtic Fervour Series deal further
with the fleeing Brigantes who eventually move systematically further northwards
to Taexali lands (modern day Aberdeenshire) to avoid being subsumed into the
Roman Way of Life. My Garrigill warriors are not totally cowed, though. They
are seeking a young and vibrant leader who will amass a Celtic Army to face the
Roman legions under General Agricola at what was named by the Roman historian
Tacitus as The Battle of Mons Graupius’.

Does that end their flight? History says no since the battle
of Mons Graupius was ‘won’ by the Romans and some 20,000 Celts fled to the high
hills- again according to the only written source, penned by Tacitus.

Joe Stephens is a fellow contributor to the Writing Wranglers and Warriors blog which I write for every second Saturday. I expected the novel to be a gripping one from comments I'd read elsewhere about the novel, but I certainly didn't expect the ending in all it goriness. Joe's personal religious convictions shine throughout the novel, but even if you're not of the same inclinations the convictions of the characters are convincing.

If you're a fan of the gritty, gory private detective novel, you'll probably love this one.

Here's what I put on Amazon and Goodreads - as well as here.

This was a gripping story which dealt with some extremely
difficult subjects, though the interlinking of what was happening to the
protagonists was very neatly done as the story progresses. Very sad things
happen to the adult main characters, Harry and Dee, but their faith takes them
forward out of the abyss of traumatic situations. The reader finds young
Jennifer’s shadowed past isn’t over. Potentially extremely serious harm is awaiting her but Harry is a stalwart at her
side, his vow to keep her safe one he will not lay aside. The main characters
are all easy to like but I also took a shine to Otis the policeman friend of
Harry and Dee. Whether or not you have the same religious conviction as Harry
and Dee, it’s good that the book highlights the kindness they extend to
Jennifer, who is essentially a vulnerable stranger to them. The dire deeds of
the ending became almost unbearable to read, and the new reader to the story
needs to be prepared for some shocks at the end.

I hadn't realised that this was book 3 of the series but when I've got through my current TBR list, I'll be picking up the first two books and reading them.

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Imagining the setting…of The Beltane choice - one of the three featured historical novels on the Crooked Cat Books page on Facebook this week.

Lakes, mountains, streams, rolling countryside – you’ll find
them all in The Beltane Choice except
what you’ll find is my image of what the land was like almost 2000 years ago.

When writing the novel, I had to see the Cumbrian landscape
of almost 2000 years ago through my main male characters’ eyes. After a lot of
deliberation, I decided that the actual land itself was probably not too
dissimilar from what I’d see today. Any habitation would naturally be different
and I’m pleased that reviewers have mentioned that they could picture the
roundhouse settlements and the crannog dwellings from my vividly clear
descriptions.

What would have been a bit different would have been the buildings near the field areas on the lower slopes. Again, I aimed to provide sufficient detail
for my readers to superimpose my descriptions of the outlying roundhouse farms
on a photo of today showing a typical hill farm. The building of dry stone
dykes was done during the Iron Age so the fields we can see today that are bordered by stone walling might just
be repaired and replaced stone versions of those from all those centuries ago. Fencing would be different - a wattled type of woven wooden fencing would have bordered the animal pens in the Late iron Age farm but that kind of fencing would have been used for shorter stretches of separation than those wooden fences you'd find today at the verges of the roads. Cereal
crops and animal husbandry went on during the late Iron Age – though animal
power would have replaced any machinery used today. Horses were quite plentiful on Celtic farms though the type of horse would have been different. The typical Celtic horse was quite small, more of the size of a pony.

Cheviot hills

There would have been natural mixed woodland tree cover, if any, clothing
the hillsides rather than the Forestry Commission plantations of conifers that you'd find today. The lakes would maybe have slightly different defining edges but
in general the waters would be fairly similar. Rolling countryside that’s good
for arable farming now would have been farmed back then as well. The differences
would maybe be in field uses- more different crops now. Sheep would probably not have had the free wanderingthat they have today but the small Celtic sheep would have been out there (a bit like the Soay sheep variety of today found in the Hebrides) .

The mountain tops, I believe, would be very similar. The
trek taken by Lorcan from what was Brigante territory (Cumbria/ Northumberland border) over the hilltops
to Selgovae territory (Dumfriesshire) where he encounters Nara for the first
time would be little different from the same trek done across the Cheviot Hills
today.

Monday, 25 January 2016

My #Monday Moments are with Robert Burns, National bard of Scotland, since today 25th January is Burns Day.

Tonight I will be eating haggis, neeps n' tatties a) because we eat it often and b) it give us the excuse to have a 'wee dram' to celebrate the bard.

I've particulary chosen this image (left) painted by Alexander Naysmith in 1787 because the date was close to the event written about in the poem below.

Robert Burns – the great self marketer or just one who liked
to buck the trend?

I’ve always loved the poems and songs of Robert Burns,
indeed I’ve posted some on this blog in past days. There’s a saying that he was
a ‘man of many parts’ and today I’m thinking he just might have been into
self-marketing long before the word was even invented! More likely it was just
his manner of not bowing to the morality of the society around him.

It’s fairly common to read that Robert Burns was a man who
was ‘awfu fond o’ the wimmin’—a man who loved many women and left some proof of
it. What I’ve just noticed in the poem below is that he was not averse to using
his situation to become a man and presumably a poet more talked about. In
essence, the more who knew him and his reputation perhaps the better it would
be for him as an earning poet?

On the 22nd May 1785 the first of Robert Burns’
illegitimate children was born. Elizabeth Paton, a servant of the Burns
household, bore him a daughter- also named Elizabeth/. Burns’ mother would have been
happy for him to marry the girl but it was not to be- Robert Burns was
counselled against this by his brother Gilbert and his sister Isabella on the
grounds that the girl was coarse and uneducated.

The baby grew up in the Burns’ household at Mossgiel for
many years till Robert Burns died after which she was given into her mother’s
care, Elizabeth Paton having married a farm servant named Andrew. From the
words below, it would be lovely to believe he always felt the same about this
illegitimate daughter. The fact that he made provision for her on his death
means he didn’t forget her but I do hope he was always kindly to her, as at the
beginning.

There are a few versions of the following poem but this is
the one in my Souvenir Edition copy, Edited by James Barke, Collins Publishers,
1969 edition.

Sunday, 24 January 2016

It's been a while since I've done a 'Sunday Snippet'. Since The Beltane Choice is one of the featured historical novels this week at Crooked Cat Books page on Facebook, I've chosen a section that I vividly remember toying around with many times at the draft stages of the novel.

I'm always eager to convey the image I have of the surroundings in a scene through the use of highly descriptive prose. For me, that tends to mean using words that immediately pop into my head as the best fit - even if they are words now regarded by many readers (and sadly for me, authors and editors as well) to be too 'big', too uncommon, and sometimes need a dictionary to find the particular meaning of them.

As an ex-teacher of 11-12 year old pupils during their formative years, I always felt that learning at least ONE new word each day was essential. I aimed for MANY new words during each day for the more receptive children. Rightly or wrongly, I hope my strategies were appreciated at a more mature time by a good number of my Primary Seven pupils - the typical class roll being 33 kids.

The English language is FULL of fabulous words - so why dumb them down? Why not learn something new? Enrichment can be very rewarding. I know that's an old fashioned idea but I feel that if I become lazy about something - I am lazy. If I need to do something because I've said I would - completing the task makes me a lot LESS lazy. I feel the same about the English language. If one particular word is a much better fit to give a better impression of something, then I want to use it.

In The Beltane Choice I purposely used a form of 'archaic' speech in an attempt to convey the ancientness of my setting. The inclusion of 'harder' words is quite natural to me - even though I'd not fare all that well if I were a contestant on one of the TV programmes that are based on a 'Do you know the meaning of this word'.

I set a challenge to the readers of this excerpt from The Beltane Choice. Are there words you would remove and put in a simpler word? If so, which ones and why?

At this point in the story Nara, of the Selgovae tribe, has been taken prisoner by Lorcan who is of the Brigante tribe and a neighbouring Celtic enemy. She is being taken back to Lorcan's home hillfort of Garrigill but they stop en route at the Crannog settlement of Gyptus. Brennus is Lorcan's brother and one of the Brigante band of men who have her as their captive.

***

Above the noises of the marsh creatures and the
flapping of birds rising out of the boggy waters Nara heard sounds of people at their daily
work as Brennus padded behind her, keeping her moving at a steady lope. A child
cried somewhere, but the direction was impossible to tell. The marshes deadened
the sounds, muffling them, baffling inexpert ears like her own, and tall marsh
plants set up an odd sort of disorientation. The sounds of iron on an anvil
hummed close by; a voice sang a merry accompaniment. The acrid reek of the
forge mingled with the smells of the waterside and the nauseating stench of
tanning leather.

Brennus forced her into a large clearing close to the
lake’s edge, Lorcan’s warrior band having spread around the perimeter, where
they sought somewhere sound enough to tether their horses. Nara had no need to do so as Brennus kept a
tight grip on Eachna’s rein.

“Lorcan!” Brennus’s laughing tale was imparted
deliberately across the clearing, loud enough for all around to hear. “You will
be glad to hear your Selgovae captive did not succeed in her futile escape
attempt.”

A glower, wild as a thunderstorm, raked her for long
moments before Lorcan spoke to the warrior beside him, the torque and armbands
adorning the young man proclaiming his rank at the crannog settlement.

Nara felt the back of her throat thicken as she tried to
ignore the umbrage in Lorcan’s gaze, his saying nothing making failure feel
even more acute. Anger she could rally against; ignoring her was more hurtful
to her frayed emotions.

The ground Brennus then forced her over was solid
underfoot, constructed of hard packed earth reinforced with binding materials
to keep it firm. A timber walkway, some twenty paces long, led out across the
lake water to platforms accommodating two crannog roundhouses with adequate
space all around them. One dwelling was of the usual size; the other a smaller
one for storage. Two horses were tethered alongside the smaller in a covered but
wall-less enclosure. A forge just outside the larger roundhouse spewed out
dense black smoke while a smith plied his craft, hammering a rhythmic ring-ting
as he fashioned a metal tool.

Grond called out to the sweating smith Nara could see hunched
over the anvil.

“Look after these horses for Lorcan. I will send a boy
to help you. We go to see my father.”

Grond took another pathway leading out of the
clearing, Lorcan following him. Just before they disappeared out of sight, Nara felt Lorcan’s gaze
fleetingly alight on her, as though making sure she was still there. Though he
was across the opened space, his eyes held hers in silent censure before he
trudged on, the downturn of his lips marking his displeasure.

Willing herself not to be upset by it Nara pretended indifference…but it hurt to
see condemnation in Lorcan’s eyes. And that was foolish. He was her enemy as
much as every other Brigante around her.

Head down she trawled behind as the warrior-band
followed Lorcan, making their way along another reinforced pathway and across a
log causeway bordered by wattled walls. Brennus followed in her wake, taking
his guarding seriously. Once into the open at the lake’s edge she could see the
roundhouse they approached more clearly, no longer obscured by the tall reed
and fronding light-green willow cover.

The crannog dwelling sat tall and proud, this one a
little larger than a typical roundhouse. Built out over the water, its circular
wooden platform sat on stilted foundations, the walkway access edged with a
waist-high woven wall of willow, with an infill of thinner twigs. The wattle
and clay daubed wall of the dwelling was low, no higher than Nara’s head, the
thatched roof beams protruding over the top of it, creating a shady overhang.
On the outer circular platform edge two children played a game on a wooden
board with marked coloured stones. Close by, a young woman stood weaving at a
tall upright loom under the overhang near the children. A little further round,
Nara could just
glimpse a skin-covered coracle and a dugout boat floating at a protruding
landing stage, accessible from the platform edging.

“Mother,” Grond called ahead, “Lorcan is here to visit
Father. Where is he?”

On their approach the children scurried away, an older
woman appearing immediately. Then, more slowly, an older man whose smile was a
beam of sunshine came out.

“Lorcan. Welcome!” The older man clapped Lorcan on the
shoulders, greeting him warmly while he gave an invocation of hospitality to
all. “It is long since we talked.”

“My thanks, Gyptus. It is good to be here again.”

Lorcan’s confident smile as he and Gyptus walked round
to the landing-stage made Nara
feel neglected. She wished the smile was for her, now her own situation was
back to threatening. A lone Selgovae, she was surrounded by even more
Brigantes; from the hostile look on their faces none happy with her presence.

Are you up to that challenge? Please pop your thoughts in the comments section. Slainthe!

Saturday, 23 January 2016

I've just finished reading this excellent historical adventure,published by Crooked Cat, and it just so happens to also be another of the 3 featured historical novels on the Crooked Cat Books page on Facebook during the week beginning the 22nd January - like The Beltane Choice is.

Here are my thoughts on Five Guns Blazing, an enjoyable adventure set in the early 1700s though it also has darker aspects to it.

This was an engrossing read from the outset- a well written,
enjoyable romp set in the early 1700s. The novel is packed with interesting
historical details making the different settings come vibrantly alive. The
gritty horrors of the workhouse, convict ships and plantation life aren’t
glossed over, at least not too much since it’s for general readership. Laetitia
Beedham is swept up into situations which seem almost farcical and yet the
documented evidence proves that life in the workhouses of London;
the convict and slave ships; and the Caribbean
plantations was horrendous during that era.

I had a little trouble believing that her guise as Nathaniel
could last so long but when needs must… pirates
come in all shapes and sizes, some of whom are just a tad more wicked than
others! You'd have to read yourself to find out just how wicked Pirate Jack Rackham is in Five Guns Blazing.

Friday, 22 January 2016

During the week beginning 22nd January, The Beltane Choice is one of the 3 featured historical adventures on the Crooked Cat Books FaceBook page. You can see those books HERE.

This is the first of a few articles that I'll be posting this coming week about The Beltane Choice, Book 1 of my Celtic Fervour Series of historical romantic adventures.

“Most of all, I would
say that The Beltane Choice is one of the most convincing evocations of Celtic
Britain that I have ever come across, and the central romance stands out
against that background with great passion and immediacy.”

Quote from a review of The
Beltane Choice on Amazon UK.

All authors love reviews which home in on the purpose of
their writing and this quote from a 4 star review is one of my favourite
sentences written about The Beltane
Choice.

What was my purpose when I started to write The Beltane Choice? Did I set myself a
challenge?

Absolutely! And why would that be? The answer is total
fascination in the era which I’m not sure will ever cease to plague me.

Writing about Celtic Britain

Mostly I wrote The
Beltane Choice because I was desperate to write fiction set in a time
period that not many authors write about. Pre-historic Britain fiction, and in my opinion particularly
pre-historic northern Britain,
was sorely neglected.

I’ve always been an avid reader. Though quite eclectic over
the decades regarding genres, my preference has always veered towards the
historical novel and historical romances. It was rare for me to come across novels
set in pre-historic times but, when I did, I devoured those by authors like Jean
M Auel. I read plenty of historical novels set in Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt and also loved
those eras, especially liking the stories if they gave excellent
representations of the life of more ordinary people. I had great fun reading
stories set in Roman times, like David Wishart’s Corvinus mysteries and those detective
Falco mysteries of Lyndsey Davis. When I read Bard by Morgan Llywelyn, I was doubly
entranced by the mystique of those early time periods in Britain and Ireland.

Which Celtic Britain
location?

When I eventually made the change from ‘reader only’ to ‘author
as well’, I desperately wanted my first novel for an adult readership to be set
in Celtic/Roman Scotland. I wanted my story to be about Celtic tribespeople
whose daily lives are drastically altered by the threat the Roman
Empire brings to them. I’d no interest in basing my tale on a
recorded king or queen from northern Britannia, like Queen Cartimadua or King
Venutius—a few novels I’d read had included them. As it happened, my initial
research provided no names at all of Celtic kings or queens north of the
Brigante lands ruled by Cartimandua and Venutius i.e. modern day ‘Scotland’. If
they existed, there was no documentation of them during the post-Claudian
invasion era of Britannia (AD 43 onwards).

I chose not to invent any king or queen. The echelon of the
Celtic hierarchy that I’ve targeted in The
Beltane Choice is that of chieftain because, I felt, it gave my characters
sufficient freedom of movement for me to make the story a historical adventure!
(BTW- Speaking with a Scottish dialect, I DO pronounce the ‘h’ in historical)

I believe pre-historic Scotland is neglected by authors
simply because it’s not easy to research—yet that was no reason for me to
abandon the idea! As an ex-primary teacher, I had a very broad overview but
that wasn’t nearly enough knowledge for me to write a historical novel which
was a ‘convincing evocation(s) of Celtic Britain’.

Endless research began, an absorbing bug which I can’t and
don’t actually want to shift! There are few prime source texts to refer to for
details of northern Britannia. Those
available were written by Roman or Greek historians and are somewhat biased but
the ‘Agricola’ by Tacitus became my
best source, limited though it is.

Wikimedia Commons-Agricola

When and where to
start?

The biggest shock to my system when planning The Beltane Choice was that as I
investigated further it made more sense to write about the impact of the Roman
Empire on northern England
first before I wrote about its impact in Scotland. This was because the main
advance into Scotland
largely came after around a decade of hard Roman campaigning in present day Yorkshire. But what prompted this action by the current
Roman emperor?

The Roman Emperor Nero concluded the Julio-Claudian dynasty
of emperors, his spectacular suicide coming in AD 68 which thrust Rome into civil war. Thus
began a short period of ‘superior dog eat dog’ period of disruption. However,
at this time it wasn’t only Rome
itself which was in turmoil. There had been many revolts across the empire as
well as in Britannia during Nero’s 14 year tenure as emperor, some of which had
occurred in northern Britannia. In AD 69, after the very unsettling civil war period
of the ‘Year of the Four Emperors’, Vespasian took the helm of Rome.

At this same time Brigantia was having its own civil war
with the forces of Venutius at war with his ex-wife Queen Cartimandua. This
created mayhem in Brigantia. There was civil war within the Brigantes
Federation of tribes, some of whom were also warring against Roman incursions
into what had become an unstable area. The days of Queen Cartimandua’s dealings
with as a client queen ruling over lands ‘protected’ by Rome were over.

By AD 71, the Roman forces under the new Governor of Britannia,
Petilius Cerialis, forged a strong pathway northwards.

That was it! My start
point for writing The Beltane Choice (and
subsequently for beginning my Celtic Series) was AD 71.

After a little deliberation, I realised I could still have a
‘Scottish’ dimension to the story. I could have a Selgovae female character (Nara)—the Selgovae tribal lands being southern central Scotland—and
Brigante male lead (Lorcan), though the action in the story is mainly in
Brigantia.

Themes in the novel?

My purpose in The
Beltane Choice was to write about the horrendous impact those Roman
usurpers had on Lorcan’s kin from his home hillfort of Garrigill. I wanted to
convey the limited choices the northern tribes had when the Roman legions eventually
marched northwards to absorb Brigantia into the Roman Empire, having largely
left it alone for around two decades whilst Cartimandua was under the
protection of Rome.
But because my bias was going to be about the Celtic perspective, I had to find
a way of uniting those northern tribes, Selgovae and Brigante. I needed to find
a way of bringing them to some unity so that together they could attempt to
repel the Roman horde that descended upon Brigantia.

I’d read sufficient romances to know that a popular theme
was ‘the marriage bargain’. I decided to use that theme and make this first
book of my Celtic Fervour Series have a strong romantic element, balanced by a
sound historical context. The bargaining between the normally warring Selgovae
and Brigante tribes, however, wasn’t going to be a simple one. The Beltane Choice bargaining turns out
to be more complicated than even Lorcan envisages when he decides to use his
captive, Nara,
as a bargaining tool!

Another 5 star reviewer states that The Beltane Choice“has all the right ingredients of a fine historical novel.”

The Beltane Choice includes
as many historical details as I could muster at the time of writing and, as
such, has more background elements than an average historical romance.

Another reviewer states:“Jardine is a wonderful writer, whose words took me back to another world, to
another way of life and enabled me to 'see' what was happening. I found all the
details about the Celtic way of life, customs and attire, fascinating. The plot
kept me reading, turning the pages to see what was going to happen, and at no
stage was the end (for me) predictable…”

I've not had any new reviews lately for The Beltane Choice, on Amazon or anywhere else that I know of, but if you've read my novel and agree with the reviewers quoted here it would be lovely to have some new endorsements that my original tasks regarding The Beltane Choice were successful.

Monday, 18 January 2016

It's time to do a bit ofself promotion and share the news that I just sold 10 copies of The Taexali Game, my Teen/ YA time travel historical adventure, to my local primary school.

I'm absolutely delighted that this has happened because I now hope that my story will be read and discussed by local teens in their class reading group. My intention when writing the novel was for exactly this to happen, so I now have the task of 'pitching the novel' to other schools in the local area having given them a credible reason to buy a set for as an addition to their reading scheme.

One large question occurs to me- do I send a snail mail letter, or do they tend to prefer an email these days? Meanwhile...

Callum Fraser’s games are totally
awesome but when his Rubidium Time-Leap flips Aran Bruce and his best friends—Brian
and Fianna Fraser—back to AD 210, the reality is incredible. They have a task
list to fulfil, which includes solving a local mystery, but it’s a nightmarish business
when Ancient Roman Emperor Severus and his legions heap death and destruction
on the Taexali Celts of northern Britannia.

Giving help to Celts and Romans alike
becomes a lethal assignment—some Celtic chiefs are as foul as Severus and his
beastly son Caracalla. Dicing with death becomes the norm for the time
travellers from Kintore, Aberdeenshire.

Saturday, 16 January 2016

It's time for my every-second-Saturday post at the Writing Wranglers and Warriors blog. You can find my post here where I discuss the sadness affecting me lately and what is most precious. Click HERE to see the post. Slainthe!

Friday, 15 January 2016

I've read a couple of Jen Black's novels already, enjoyed them and I looked forward to reading this new one, published in 2015.

I have times when I want purely to be entertained and to read something relatively uncomplicated. This week was like that since a family bereavement was casting a very sad shadow and my mood was pretty fragile. I needed something to lift my spirits and make me forget the realities. When I scrolled down my tablet to see the books in my TBR pile, I was confident that this novel would do the trick...and it did.

I very much enjoyed reading this Victorian romantic mystery.
The settings are well drawn and the characters are likeable- at least most of
them are, those being the ones you're meant to like! High handed and autocratic
Adam Grey might be but he comes across as the man you really would want to sit
beside at a formal dinner table. Even though attending to the rituals is a bit
of a trial for him he does it with affable manners. However, that doesn’t mean
he’s averse to breaking the occasional society rule or two as he gets to know
the attractive, if a little naïve 18 year old Daisy Charleton. Most of the
wealthy house guests have a 'trade' background rather than inherited title and
I liked the lack of snobbery over this at a time when Victorian high society was
still riddled with condescension.

The Victorian house parties aren’t tedious when both Adam
and Daisy attend them. Solving the mystery of the stolen artworks is fairly
simple if the reader picks up the well inserted clues. Recommended for those
who enjoy Victorian Romance.

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

The location that I’m currently writing about in my WIP is Ceann
Druimin – Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire.

As part of my ongoing research of the area
I’ve digressed from wondering what it was like in AD 84 and have been
fascinated by its later, superb, claims to fame.

KildrummyCastle was one of the most impressive Castles of Mar,
and perhaps even in Scotland.

The Castles
of Mar are so named since they are sited on the very large province of MAR, a huge tract of north-east Scotland which was one of the 7
divisions of the Pictish Kingdom of Scotland. The province of Mar,
it’s believed, was named after the Mormaer (N.B. there are different spellings
of the word). A mormaer is the Scottish Gaelic name for the steward of each
province, who was the next level down from the Pictish king. These 7 areas,
later named earldoms, were found
north of the Central belt i.e. north of the line between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The earldom of Mar was a huge tract of land in northeast Scotland
and was politically important because of its strategic location. Around 1250,
the imposing castle at Kildrummy was built by William de Mar, who was the
current Mormaer and Chamberlain to Alexander III King of the Scots. Kildrummy guarded the main routes from the
south before they came together to wend north into Moray and Buchan.

model of what it may have looked like during the 13 and 14th centuries

During the reign of Alexander III, Scotland had become more
prosperous- trade was flourishing which allowed the king to engage in building
more castles and monasteries throughout the land- KildrummyCastle
being one of his new buildings. Scotland
remained stable and well ruled till the death of Alexander III in 1286.

Unfortunately, Alexander III’s sole surviving heir was his
granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway, who nominally became queen at the
tender age of 3 years. For the ensuing five years, she had 6 guardians who
ruled Scotland
in her name. When she was 8 she was betrothed to Prince Edward, the eldest son
of King Edward I of England.
Having set sail from Norway
she sickened, and died after the ship put into harbour in Orkney.

With no obvious heirs (Alexander’s second marriage in 1285
to Yolande, Comtesse de Montfort, produced no live children) Scotland was in
dynastic turmoil. Edward I of England
had been in good relations with Alexander III and was asked to mediate between
the contenders to the Scottish throne. Edward I agreed to arbitrate but only on
condition that the claimants swore fealty to him as the feudal superior of Scotland. From
13 contestants he whittled the number down to 3, descendants of the daughters
of David I (Earl of Huntingdon). The three ‘finalists’ were John Balliol,
Robert Bruce and John Hastings. Edward chose John Balliol but Robert Bruce’s
claim was just a good since he was the grandson of David I.

John Balliol was crowned King of Scots in 1292 but it was
immediately apparent that he could not prevent Edward I from dominating him. By
1294, Edward I was demanding soldiers from Scotland
to engage in his war with France. John Balliol might have been weak but his fellow countrymen
weren’t agreeing to Edward’s demands. They set up a council to rule instead of
John Balliol. Shunning Edward I they began the 'Auld Alliance’ with France which
was to last for the next 300 hundred years.

In 1296 and 1303, Edward I of England visited Kildrummy Castle as a guest but resistance
to his demands was strengthening. By 1306, Robert Bruce was crowned King of the
Scots and this dramatically changed relations between Scotland and England. When the English invaded Scotland, Robert Bruce sent his wife and daughter to Kildrummy Castle, to safety, but that was
not to be. Kildrummy was left in the care of Robert Bruce’s brother Neil.
However, when the English besieged the castle and the defenders capitulated
after a blacksmith turned traitor, Neil was captured. He was hanged, quartered
and decapitated. Bruce’s wife and
daughter were imprisoned and part of the castle was destroyed by the English to
prevent further use by the Scots.

During the fourteenth century the castle was damaged and repaired
a number of times after attacks by the English, though on at least one occasion also by the
Scottish forces of King David II against the pro-English Earl of Mar in 1363.

During the fifteenth century, King James I seized the castle
to curb the power of hos wayward noble, the castle being afterwards in the stewardship
of a royal constable who only answered to the king.

KildrummyCastle also played a role
during the Jacobite era. The sixth Earl of Mar (the earldom having been
reinstated when the Erskines took over the property) used Kildrummy castle as a
base to launch the early Jacobite Rebellion in 1715 but his defeat at the
Battle of Sherrifmuir meant he had to flee to the continent. The castle was
never again used as a noble residence and gradually fell into disrepair.

In 1898, Colonel James Ogston bought the castle and over the
next thirty years attempted to restore parts of it. Having been used as an unofficial
stone supply for building elsewhere it was a massive challenge that he took on.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Lulach's Stone—a highly impressive menhir in Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire.
Thought to be of Bronze Age origin, it’s almost 9 feet high above ground, wider
at the shoulder. It bears no cup-marks or tooling. The grey schist is partly moss/ lichen covered.

Why Lulach?

The name may have origins from the gaelic ‘liath’ meaning ‘grey’
thus the ‘grey stone. Since most of the solitary standing stones I’ve seen in
Aberdeenshire are grey, I find that would be repetitively simplistic…except
that in former times – even back in the late Iron Age - the stone perhaps didn’t
have a name and had no need for a specific name. If a direction was physically pointed
towards the nearest menhir perhaps no other identification was necessary.

One source I found indicated that even as recently as the
Victorian Era the Lulach Stone may have been even taller above ground, maybe
standing at more like 11 feet high. if so, perhaps a bit at the top has sheered off or the ground level of the field had altered. Whatever its original height, it would have taken
a good degree of strength, man hours and cooperation to set it into place.

Another explanation for the name is that it refers to King
Lulach, son of lady Macbeth of Shakespeare fame. There are 2 standing stones
named Lulach in Upper Donside which bear the
name Lulach. Folklore states they were the place where Lulach was killed some 6
months into his reign as King of Scots (1057-1058), having succeeded as stepson
to Macbeth. (He was followed by Malcom III and the succession of Scottish Kings
removed from the ‘Moray’ line)

My Caledon
chief in my current WIP is named Lulach after the stone and his roundhouse
village is at Ceann Druimin (Kildrummy), the same location as the menhir mentioned above which would already have been in Lulach’s field for many centuries before he became
the caretaker of his tribe c. AD 84.